Coulomb Excitation of the 64Ni Nucleus and Application of Inverse Kinematics*

In this contribution, we present new data on the semi-magic 64Ni nucleus, close to the N$=$40 harmonic oscillator shell gap. Recent studies suggest a complicated existence of shape coexistence in 68Ni, likely caused by type-II shell evolutions. The region studied here thus might define the "shore" of the region of more deformed nuclei in the Island of Inversion below 68Ni. At the Maier-Leibnitz-Laboratory (MLL) in Munich, a beam of 64Ni was excited using Coulomb excitation. The high-granularity MINIBALL HPGe array and a segmented silicon strip detector were used to identify gamma decays in 64Ni. Doppler-shifted attenuation method (DSAM) analysis was applied to the experimental data acquired to resolve the low-lying excited states and acquire a lifetime measurement based on Geant4 simulations of the first excited 2$+$ state, clarifying the previously conflicting results. Furthermore, we show DSAM data following transfer reactions in inverse kinematics. This new method has the potential to provide insight into tests of ab-initio shell model calculations in the sd-pf shell and for the study of nuclear reaction rates.